Organizations have changed tremendously over the past few decades. Such changes have been attributed to a plethora of factors, some ranging from technological changes to changes in consumer preferences. Indeed, most organizations have found themselves at crossroads, especially upon which they have realized the utmost importance to adapt to the new changes that are affecting the manner in which they conduct business. Chief Executive Officers and other senior managers have found out the importance and urgency of swiftly adapting to new changes in the corporate world. Not only have they adopted new leadership strategies but also sought guidance from leading industry players and the technological sphere. A keen analysis of the appropriate goal setting framework that a leading newspaper brand, Los Angeles Tribune can adopt is provided in this paper as well as the strategies they can employ to stay afloat amid their dwindling fortunes.
Leadership and Management
An organizations' success is only as good as the leaders who are at the helm and the management approach that they use in their day to day operations. Since time immemorial, many organizations have experienced tremendous growth with the right team at the helm. Conversely, astonishing failures have also been registered by those that did not see it fit to appoint the right leaders to steer their organization. Those at the helm of leadership and management using three main parameters to gauge their effectiveness: human resources and relations, adaptations and innovation and lastly process reliability and efficiency. Scholars of yesteryears came up with flexible leadership theories that enabled leaders to improve the efficiency of their organizations by changing their behaviors and manner of operations.
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The three aspects highlighted in the above discourse are primareily affected by the external environment in which an organization operates. Additionally, organizations are also affected by time. Apart from that, those factors are also similar from one firm to the other (Ruther, 2018) . For instance, one organization’s attempt to enhance its performance and effectiveness will automatically affect the operations of the other organization (Ruther, 2018) . Indeed, with the changes being witnessed in the modern corporate sphere, it is imperative that leaders assess the scenarios where they can apply the three leadership strategies for the benefit of their respective organizations.
Los Angeles Tribune has been experiencing dwindling fortunes over the past few years as a result of various factors bordering on the external environment. The company can change its dwindling fortunes by applying the right strategies (Ruther, 2018) . By choosing the appropriate framework, Los Angeles Tribune will be able to experience a turnaround and retain its lost glory as leading newspaper not only in Los Angeles but also in its environs as well.
Mitigating Against the Increase in Cost of Paper
Raw materials are one of the core areas that affect the operations and future prosperity of most organizations (Ruther, 2018) . The reason for this is because they form the primary basis of production and their cheap availability means that a firm will be able to lower its cost of production and therefore increase its profits (Leybovich, 2018) . Among the challenges that Los Angeles Tribune has grappled with, the major one that directly affects its operations is the increase in the cost of paper (Leybovich, 2018). The firm can employ the right tactics an strategy and eventually save itself from the rise in the price of printing paper (Ruther, 2018) . Some of the approaches are discussed below.
Efficiency and Process Reliability
Los Angeles Tribune can adopt efficient and reliable practices to ensure that it does not have to spend copious amounts of money on procuring raw materials. The ability of a firm to use resources prudently means that it will cost-effectively conduct its operations and thereby shun unproductive practices (London & Mone, 2012). There exist many ways that a leader can use to ensure that there is no wastage of resources within the organization. In the instance of Los Angeles Tribune, the firm can come up with restrictions to put employees in posts where they will realize their full potential without wasting the company's resources (London & Mone, 2012). The restructuring can be done by improving coordination among staff, eliminating redundancies and redesigning the organization's framework. Furthermore, task-focused styles and behaviors can also be used. Los Angeles Tribune will eventually be able to slay the dragon that is the increase in the cost of printing paper by putting the above measures in place.
Mitigating Against Customer Preferences
Another challenge facing Los Angeles Tribune is that majority of their customers are aged 40 years and above. As a result of that, their revenues have shrunk drastically due to fewer customers. The firm can mitigate against this unfortunate scenario through adaptation and innovation. Doing so will ensure that they adopt measures that will increase their clientele base and probably enable them to reach those consumers below the age of forty (London & Mone, 2012). Adaptation is the process where the firm will adopt proactivity in the manner in which it responds to its external environment. In so doing, it can change its services, products, goals and marketing strategies to encompass those in the lower age bracket (London & Mone, 2012). The firm can innovate creative ways of including comic stories that will thrill consumers in the younger generation (London & Mone, 2012). It is only by doing so that they will break the glass ceiling and reach out to younger customers thus increase revenue.
Retrenchment
Los Aneles Tribune will automatically have to lay-off some its workforce as a way of mitigating against its shrinking revenue (London & Mone, 2012). That aspect of leadership will be dealt with by human resources and human relations (London & Mone, 2012). The human resources department will have to come up with strategies to make the workforce lean by retrenching some of its employees. This is commensurate with HR’s work of streamlining organizational operations and bringing about efficiency and reliability of the process.
In conclusion, Los Angeles Tribune will experience a turnaround of events by adopting the recommendations stated in the above discourse. The dragons that include an increase in the price of paper, small consumer bracket and a large workforce will be slain by applying the above framework. Every organization the world over yearns for more revenue and long-term profitability and that will only be possible if it streamlines its operations by reducing its productions cost.
References
London, M., & Mone, E. (2012). Leadership for today and the future [Electronic version]. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/
Leybovich, I. (2018). How to Cope with Unpredictable Raw Materials Costs. Thomas Publishing Company . Retrieved from https://news.thomasnet.com/imt/2012/06/05/how-to-cope-with-unpredictable-raw-materials-costs
Ruther, D. (2018, July 3). Management Strategies: Dealing with Volatile Raw Material Prices. Cleveland, Ohio, Ohio.
